Kim Roberts

Kim Roberts is a Canadian actress, best known for her roles as Christine in The Handmaids Tale, Regina from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Marnie in Schitt's Creek, Neeva in The Strain, Gloria in Lucky Seven, Camilla in Being Erica, Mazz in The Doodlebops, Mrs. Arvin in I'm Not There and Mrs. Bosco in The Cheetah Girls.

She played Deborah in Saw III and Saw IV.

Early Life

Kim Robert’s parents are from the Caribbean. Her mother, Josephine, is from the creole island of Dominica and her late father, Oswald, was born in Jamaica. They met and married in Toronto, Canada, where Roberts and her brother Mark were born. Roberts still has close ties to both islands. As a child, she performed as a member of The Friendship Circle, a group of young singers and dancers directed by Lois Lilienstein of Sharon, Lois and Bram and her partner Louise. The ensemble toured locally, singing folk songs at schools and festivals like Mariposa, as well as appearing on Bram’s television show.

Under the direction of her older cousins, Roberts would begin her stage career as a leading lady in home productions put on for friends and parents. She attended a drama lab at the University of Toronto at the age of 12, which solidified her interest in the craft. While enrolled in the gifted program at Earl Haig Secondary School, she was given special permission to enter the acting stream at Claude Watson School for the Arts. Roberts finished her studies at C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute. Her friendships with acting and scholastic alumni Rachael Crawford and Louis Ferreira were formed during these years.

Career

Roberts attended the University of Western Ontario majoring in political science and minoring in philosophy, with a view to becoming a lawyer. A theater class taken at York University one summer led to an invitation from Ron Singer, the chair of the Theater department, to study at York. Roberts accepted the invitation, but before completing her studies, auditioned for and was cast in the Company of Sirens touring production of No Problems Here. She performed as well as produced and directed for the company for the next three years.

Roberts branched out into film and television and became the first woman of African descent to portray the speaking heroine in a nationally televised Canadian commercial. The spot was for Benalyn cough syrup. Since then, her resume has grown to include leading and recurring roles in over 100 different on-screen credits. She has shared screen and stage with the best of the artistic community, including Christopher Plummer, Helen Mirren, Jackie Chan, Lindsay Lohan, Eugene Levy, Debbie Gibson, James Garner, Julie Andrews, Robin Williams, Alfre Woodard, Mariah Carey, Wesley Snipes, Tom Selleck, Farah Fawcett and more. She has been directed and produced by many industry luminaries, of note, Steven Spielberg, Maya Angelou, Todd Haynes, Sydney Lumet and Peter Bogdanovich.

Roberts received the Harold Award for theater in 1996 and the Real World Trailblazer award at the ReelWorld Film Festival in 2014 for her body of work in film and television.

Obsidian Theatre Company, Canada’s premiere black theatre company, was founded in Kim Roberts’s home and she is one of its twelve founding members. Roberts narrated and performed The Book of Negroes for the CBC podcast ‘Between the Covers.’

Filmography

Film

Television

Video Games

Gallery

External Links

• Kim Roberts on Wikipedia
• Kim Roberts at the Internet Movie Database
• Kim Roberts on Instagram